


The Planet of Fates

by agirlfromniima



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/M, Trapped, Tumblr: reylofanfictionanthology
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-24
Updated: 2016-12-24
Packaged: 2018-09-11 16:02:08
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,157
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8997484
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/agirlfromniima/pseuds/agirlfromniima
Summary: Simple scavenger Rey was almost ready to find Luke, to bring peace to the galaxy once again, until a mysterious force pulled her into the dreaded Kylo Ren's path. Though this may be a trap, something bigger seems to be playing out for the two adversaries. And it won't be like anything they've faced before...





	

**Author's Note:**

> Hello. This is indeed my first experience using Ao3. I had originally typed this in Google Docs. I highly recommend to you, the reader, to access this link to the original doc instead and read it from there for maximum enjoyment. Thank you.
> 
> https://docs.google.com/document/d/1SLTXO3qkvA4tL434V3C-6PhdiqJODYjISDh4b1aIu5s/edit?usp=sharing

_The belonging you seek is not behind you. It is ahead._

**. . .**

She waslost. 

The girl tried her best, scanning the emptiness to find a gas giant, a star, _anything_ that would indicate a nearby civilization upon which she could dock and reroute, but this was in vain. There was only the darkness that seemed to envelop her tiny spec of ship and swallow it whole. 

But that was impossible! How can a space in such a wide and contained galaxy crave an appetite? So much so that the planets and stars (if there were really any) laid invisible, totally consumed by the force that they became part of the vacuum? Yet this was the case of the young one and her craft.

She was alone again.

After checking and rechecking the coordinates, she suspected that everything looked in order, yet something did not entirely seemright. The girl peered back into the darkness then blankly at the shifting multicolored lights which flickered on and off before her elbows which slouched onto their surface while her hands supported her perplexed expression, fingers burrowing into her dark brown hair tied in three kept buns on the back of her head.

“What am I doing?” the girl mumbled ever so softly to herself, fully aware that there was indeed only she to converse her worries to. She did not really need coordinates or any formidable earth, for that matter.

_Luke Skywalker? Jedi Temples?_

Thoughts such as these were too immense for even a galaxy to contain, nevermind her small cruiser. But there was another, one not as grand or heroic by any means, which still enjoyed making itself evident in the far reaches of the girl's train of thought.

_Are these what will make me whole?_

She let out what felt like the longest and most exasperated sigh of her life and continued to stare absentmindedly at the controls until she could hold off the urge no longer: the girl pulled out what appeared to be a slim silver object from the tawny satchel hanging from her belt and fiddled with it as it laid in her palms.

Though decades old, the craftsmanship was remarkable. The steel mass felt heavier than it looked in her hands as she slid her fingers along the black leather hinges. Its surface was smooth and shimmered back any sources of light, reflecting the fractals as if it was a deep lake. Once the girl had caught sight of her own face, though, she all too anxiously shoved it back into the bag and attempted yet again to focus on the present state which the solitude has so unpleasantly interrupted.

_Beep_

The sound immediately broke her concentration and made her jump in her seat. There was certainly no need to be alarmed, though. A fresh wave of relief swam over her body as she chuckled at her unjustified fear and activated the holo-device on the cockpit’s console. A familiar figure appeared. 

“Is something the matter, Rey? A hologram of an aged woman illuminated her cockpit. Despite her age and the fatigue creased into her lined expression, the old one's smile enlightened the dim scope of her enclosement, “We’ve lost you on our maps. Turned rogue on us already?”

The girl called Rey smiled in a way she wouldn’t have imagined merely a week ago, “Not yet General Organa. The coordinates I used seemed to be invalid. There isn’t a star in sight. I’ll insert them again in a moment.”

The woman’s computerized eyebrow cocked, “Oh? Which system were you planning to visit?”

“‘Nearest one to our base. I didn’t want to deviate too far, but it seems—” She was about to finish her sentence when her eyes flicked back towards the space outside and…

_That wasn’t there before._

The general must have been gifted in telepathy, “What? Did you find something?”

Rey squinted her eyes in the distance. It was far off, but not so much so that it went unnoticed—a small dulled-blue planet. 

“I—I was mistaken. There’s a system, I don’t know which but I’ll do a scan and...” 

Her voice trailed off as something... _painful_ seized her heart and stole her breath for only a second, causing her to gasp for air. An extremely tight inhalation of that muscle in her upper left chest had rendered her immobile and with little advantage of ceasing its attack. She moved to grip it so as to add pressure to the pain yet it only increased excruciatingly. And with that, her lungs were shrinking and refusing to take in her body’s supply of oxygen. Her face grew snow white as she tried to regain her breath in short suppressed gasps like a fish held in mid air, unable to find its wet escape.

The older woman’s once serene expression turned horrified upon this sudden turn in event, “Rey? What’s wrong? Speak to me!”

The girl only heard the panicked plea fade in and out as her vision started to fade darker and darker until the lights, the controls, the woman’s perplexed visage, _everything_ cut off, leaving her shrouded in darkness.

 _Do something Rey!_ she demanded herself, _Anything...the Force!_

With all her strength, she shut her eyes firmly and tried to take as deep of a huff as she could while letting her newfound discovery of the good space, the Force, control the situation. She stiffened there in her seat as it did its magic, releasing little by little the tension and tightness of her heart until finally, her whole self released with a held back sigh. That sensation, that _agony_ , that whatever it was that had taken over her for that short time was fierce, halting her in its path. 

After regaining her proper perspective, she tried to rationalize the occurrence, but the more she thought of it, the more the incident astounded her. For she remembered that it _distinctly_ occurred when she had first caught sight of the planet that had appeared out of the dead space. The conclusion subconsciously made her eyes flicker towards it outside her window, but then immediately dodging it, pounding themselves onto anywhere else.

_Something...there is something on that planet._

 

Finally standing, Rey hastily started to make her way to the ship’s motivator but as she walked vibrations hummed into her feet with each gradual step until she finally stopped in her tracks. Her eyes widened in realization. 

She tried to run back to the cockpit only for a large wave of momentum to send her falling forward and hard to the ground and she was held down momentarily by a mysterious and sudden source of speed and gravity.

_What’s happening?_

One could tell very plainly what was now taking place, though: the ship was moving on its own, and fast. 

Throwing caution to the wind, she clumsily picked herself up and tried not to panic as she haphazardly wobbled towards the pit and looked out the window for _some_ explanation. The small blue planet outside was growing too close, too fast. A migraine erupted in her head as a loud rhythmic alarm boomed throughout the cruiser, and deep red lights pulsed on and off mercilessly.

Rey put her hand to her forehead and moaned in her torment as she hurriedly pushed the emergency override on her panel to no avail. She continued to press and pull and push anything in her line of sight until the keyboard started to literally burn her fingers. The console, the cockpit, the whole damn ship was growing red-hot, as well as her mind, eating away at itself. The keys were turning white-orange like burnt metal and the labels stuck onto them were melting into a sticky substance. 

Rey had no other choice but to escape, taking shelter onto the belly of the beast.

**. . .**

**__**Something...something like fire was accelerating towards the planet. No, wait— _two_ things. 

The stout black figure stood silently in a meadow overlooking a deep encompassing sea as it followed the things’ smoke trails etch into the once clear sky. But an electric sensation, a rift in the Force, coming from one of them made the knight place his attention onto the smaller...pod—an escape pod. 

_Rey._

Never taking his metallic eyes off the thing from the sky, he started to run.

**. . .**

Her mind was blank. Her vision was groggy. And her body ached from head-to-toe as if it were in a painfully contorted state. 

_It’s hot._

Was she back on D’Quar? No, her ship, a… Her state of temporary blankness ceased as her consciousness was drifting back into reality. Quite slowly, her vision was regaining its clarity. The once very evident ache in her mind was now pulsing, yet well retained in the back of it. She squinted her eyes to find grays, reds, and oranges flashing in and out of themselves. She was picking up a strong scent, too—smoke. It was chalky smoke that was now watering her eyes and burning her skin in waves of intense heat.

_Don’t be afraid. I’m going to help._

Another sensation, a different one, a... _familiar_ one rippled through her head. It was calm, speaking slowly, suppressing the first ache. She would do her best to keep it that way. Rubbing her eyes, she tried to see clearly of her surroundings. Smoke...smoke was everywhere. And then...a bright stream of light flashed in front of her eyes and blinded her as a sweep of fresh air flooded into whatever she was in.

“L—Leia?” she called out in a raspy cough through the cloud.

 _Don’t be afraid. Don’t be afraid. Don’t be…_ the voice hummed, repeating in smooth monotone.

Her body, it was moving now. Something black was moving it. Something black was chasing away the smoke. Her vision was finally returning speedily. Rey tried squinting her eyes again to focus on everything and was starting to see what was causing this phenomenon. Shapes took a more whole form. Leaves crackled over heavy paced steps. Black turned to a sudden horror.

“Let me go!” Rey demanded in fury as a new surge of consciousness and energy pulsed through her body. 

She flung herself out of Kylo Ren’s arms. 

Was this a hallucination? A nightmare? Her anxieties come to life before her? For out of all the menaces in the galaxy, how could her path have been blocked by him again so soon, _too_ soon? One thing was for certain, though, she wanted to be retreat—far, far away from him. Unlike her tone from their last confrontation, his revelation made her want to run and hide like an injured tauntaun from the snares of a hungry rathtar. 

No, not this time. Rey decided she would not give him the benefit of her fear. She had moved past that now. She knew what was behind that mask, so she stared right through it. The air between them froze in place, despite the heat surging behind. 

He looked on at her stoically as she hurriedly stood up from her fall. 

“Stop it. I was saving you,” he responded bluntly in justification, though fully aware that she would have done what she had just now at any given moment, “You’re weak.”

Rey did not respond, only stared in disgust at the stone cold black thing as she tried to process the past events leading to this moment. The miscalculations, the pangs, her ship...it was _him_. It was a trap.

 _The lightsaber!_ Rey pulled out the cylinder of steel and pointed it at the beast towering in front of her. A bright white-blueness appeared a foot away from his chest. 

“Where am I?” she spat and glared daringly.

Ren’s eyes followed the bright blade, up to the girl’s infuriated expression. In one sentence, he replied plainly, “I don’t know.”

“That’s a lie.”

“I have been honest with you from the beginning and I will be now. I have no idea of which is the ground we stand on but the point is: we’re standing on it either way. And not because of my doing, I swear it.”

Rey’s glare said everything she meant to say.

Ren’s patience was starting to boil as he tried to reason, his voice crackling, “You felt it, didn’t you? Don’t tell me you didn’t, it’s written all over you.” He paused after he said this so as to take in her surprise before continuing, “I did too, only in the belly of a Star Destroyer light years away—a squeeze, an unbearable force, twisting my chest until it was blue. And so I followed it, all the way here. And you followed soon after.”

Rey’s stood unwaveringly still, yet her expression gave away her shock at the words being pulled apart in her brain. She feared that he was…

No, he wasn’t.

“You’re still lying,” she held her ground, gripping the saber tighter. 

“See for yourself. My ship was obliterated as well, a mile or two west of here. If I were trying to capture you again, why would I go through such hazard?”

“It wouldn’t be the first time you would commit such things for your own twisted purposes,” her accent sliced the air between them in half.

Kylo Ren’s blood chilled, iced-cold, yet his voice was skin soft, “Rey.”

Her name spilling effortlessly out of his mouth made Rey’s blood chill the same, yet she forced herself to listen for reasons unknown.

“We are here. Now. Neither of us can change that. There is something on this...”

Before he could finish, she backed away and fled into the density of this cursed realm.

**. . .**

As the girl made her way confidently into the surrounding forestry, Ren followed her with his eyes, his fists clenched. 

_No_ , he silently shouted back to her, _it was not a trap._

Though whether she could hear him or not, he would eventually find someway to reason with her. It wouldn’t be easy, that was clear enough. 

As if her words had clogged his breathing apparatus, he subconsciously found himself pulling off his mask and tracing the large, half-healed momento which cascaded down his visage and winced at its electric pain. 

Yes, she hated him. It wouldn’t be easy at all. 

Yet, Ren _knew_ it couldn’t be a mistake. She may know little of the Force, but he did. They were here because of...because of…

 _Something…_ Ren mumbled to himself, then taking his most deepest breath in what felt like a very long time, _...it’s here_. 

_I hate you,_ it rippled back.

**. . .**

She was alone again.

Rey lowered her head away from the deep night sky, and back towards her attempt at a campfire. It was really only a few twigs and roots, tumbled on top of each other to give shelter to a tiny flash of orange whiteness, despite its imminent dwindling. 

She couldn’t help but to admire the silence and the brief respite she held onto here. Something about this planet, this moment, felt peaceful, even _familiar_. 

A sharp gust of wind flew over her back and brushed her shoulders, chilling her bones and causing her teeth to chatter as she quickly shrugged that thought off. It was _cold._

She hugged herself, wishing her large furry friend was here, wrapping his wooly arms around her. But no, her thoughts were there to prickle her skin instead.

_It’s him! How could he have found me so quickly? It’s a trap...It’s a trap..._

An older man’s chuckle echoed somewhere in the distance.

_That beast! Next time I see him I’ll—_

_No..no.. I’d rather not._

_But what will I do? What will happen?_

The fire was a small spec now, a baby flame dying in the twig forest. Rey knelt above it and cupping her hands around her mouth, she leaned into the forest and blew desperately, trying to save what little flame was left. It only dwindled more, the ground where it stood burning black as it perished. She laid alone in the darkness.

A sacred moment passed between the scorched earth and Rey until an awareness bubbled through her mind. It was the kind of warmness she craved, yet she found herself quaking as she stood up to the real forest ahead and a rustling in the trees.

The trees spoke first, though not sounding like trees at all, “It’ll die if you tend to it like that.”

“Stay away,” her reply trembled.

Yet he disobeyed, walking out of the unknownness of forest and into the border of the site she had settled in. Kylo Ren was a lean shadow in the dimness. She could not trust what she could not see, so feeling her way into her satchel resting near her feet, she found her comfort. An instant hum of intense azure illuminated the scene. 

Rey expected fully what she saw, nevertheless the human staring back at her made her stomach do backflips.

In the few swift days after their last meeting, she already knew of the one sight she hated the most in all of the vastness of the galaxy: that face. It was not because it was horrendously unattractive, mind you, but because it _wasn’t_. The first time Ren had revealed it to her, she had chastised herself for staring far too long, taking the long pale porcelain shape, the waves of black hair tumbling upon it, and those clear brown all-seeing _eyes_. Yes, she loathed those the most because when she dared peer into them, she saw herself peering back.

Those features remained now, only interrupted with one new and painfully obvious addition: a long red river of a scar singed brutally from the top left of the forehead, between the eyes, and down to the lower right jaw. And Rey remembered how it came to be. She forced the memory from her head and pointed the saber defiantly at the beast for the second time.

“Would you still like to do it? Strike me down?” his was voice no longer robotic and thick, but soft and deep.

Rey said nothing as the tempting thought lingered in her mind. 

Perhaps sensing this, Ren changed the subject, “May I sit?”

“No,” she spat all too quickly.

Unsatisfied with her answer, Ren did something peculiar: slowly, easily, he reached for a slim object, similar to the one Rey wavered in his direction, hanging from his belt. After unhinging it, he tossed it to Rey’s feet. It was his own lightsaber.

Reluctant, yet never taking her eyes from him, she used one hand to still point her weapon at his chest as she knelt down and felt the grass for his. Goosebumps rumbled all over her arm as she picked it up. It felt large and heavy like hers, yet something was burning within it that made the metal warm in her palm.

“There. I’m merely a man now.” he said and without invitation, sat down upon the grass across from her dead campfire in a crossed-legged position, “My saber—use it to strike the heap and make a fire.”

Use his lightsaber? Instinctively, Rey did not desire to take anything Kylo Ren told her seriously, yet as the idea seemed more and more plausible in her mind, the more her saber fell away from his chest, pointed towards the ground and eventually hummed away into no more. 

Rey now held Ren’s saber too tightly in both hands. Her thumb lingered over its one deadly button until crackling bolts of blazing red seared their deep hue all over her skin. A tang of heavy horrid feelings swarmed all over her. This felt so wrong, yet she was so curious.

Kylo Ren watched her from where he sat as the blades illuminated her face. Something in the air, something about her seemed to change in tone. She was fiery. His eyes widened only so slightly as one large encompassing swing of red upon her makeshift campfire erupted an inferno. It blazed beautifully, growing with vitality amongst the branches. As sparks hovered and flew over it into the night sky, Rey stood in her ending stance, breathing slowly while letting herself feel the heaviness of the saber sink in her hands before finally ceasing. She then placed it securely into her satchel while she still kept her own handy as hers and Ren’s gazes met again.

“Leave.”

A moment passed between them. Then two, and three until Ren surrendered. He stood up and started walking without rush back into the dense forest. Rey was glad to see the beast leave. Yes, relieved almost. She was glad. She was…

“Wait.”

He stopped.

She should have let him go. She hated him. She wanted nothing to do with him. His eyes brought her nightmares. His presence haunted her. But she couldn’t. Her curiosity burned into her at night and kept her awake.

“Why...why did you do it?! Why did you kill Han?” her voice broke.

He clenched his fists as he turned to her, eyes ablaze. She shouldn’t of asked. She shouldn’t of asked. Nevertheless, Rey waited for the answer she was not sure she wanted. 

His words were slow and mixed with discontent, “I would tell you, if only I knew.”

What! What kind of answer was that? 

Rey’s blood boiled, “He was your father!”

His boiled back, “Yes, _my_ father! You have too much concern for those you’ve only just met.” 

“Obviously more than you have” if a wet sensation streamed down her cheek, Rey did not notice, “He tried to help you. He came back for you!” 

She could hear him breathing now, see his chest rise and fall like hers, ferociously.

“You wouldn’t understand.”

Her voice rose, tripping and trembling under its own weight, “What wouldn’t I understand?”

Ren turned back towards the forest, yet his feet wouldn’t obey when he commanded them to run. He found Rey in front of him now, unafraid and demanding, a lightsaber gripped in her hand.

The conversation continued in their staredown. A mix of words unspoken and thoughts unthinkable interrupted each other between them. This form of dialogue killed them both, for yes, she understood yet could not fathom, and neither could he. 

It had to stop now, he had to try to tell her what he originally attempted to.

“Listen to me. The reason we’re here—”

“Is because of your selfishness.”

“Rey! Listen—”

“Leave.”

Kylo Ren grew gravely quiet and left. As he did, only soft spoken cries escorted him away.

_You’re a monster...You’re a monster..._

**. . .**

He had been walking for hours now, in the same fast-paced steps he had begun in, not knowing or caring where to. 

That girl—she had gone too far this time.

For the fifth time, Kylo Ren put his hand on his belt, expecting to feel the grip of his lightsaber, but remembered again how foolish he was to give it to her. He clenched his fists.

A loud frustrated series of breaths emitted from the robotic mask now fixed on his head as Rey’s words ripped open his mind over and over again. The anger was boiling inside of him. If only he had his lightsaber, then he could…

Wait.

He stopped. A word. A word accompanied with the same presence he had followed here had stopped him. But that word...what was it? It had flashed in his head within half a second and then was gone. _What_ _was it_? Ren did not know why he so suddenly craved to know what had flowed in and out through his head, yet he desperately searched himself for its revelation. It was a image, a feeling, that struck him so significantly that he felt like...he had known it for so long. 

_What was it!?_

A word...a word...a...name! Yes, it was a name! Yet all the names he’d ever known in his life did not seem to have the same effect as this did, though. For some reason he thought of Rey again and the presence that accompanied the unknown name. 

_It’s here._

Ren turned around. He needed to get to Rey again. Even if she wouldn’t let him, he would. Whatever it was that had brought them here, wanted them both. 

And it would pursue them for as long as it took, to the ends of this earth.

**. . .**

Rey woke up in a mad sweat, as if she had almost had a heart attack in her dreams. Her hands seized tightly the grass she laid on, twisting it into clumps. 

She remembered something terrifying had awoken her. Yet it wasn’t some nightmarish creature that tried to devour her, nor even the ever looming presence of Kylo Ren swaying her away. It was something much different, something much simpler...something…

A word!

Yes, that’s what it was! A word so earth-shattering that it had caused her to suddenly revitalize in a panic. Yet despite all the trouble it had now brought her, Rey wanted desperately to remember it again.

The campfire still burned into the night sky shakingly. 

_Seizures, Kylo Ren, and now this..._ she complained as she adjusted a stick askew from the fire in front of her, mentally skimming over whole arrays of names. 

Rey was about to lose hope that she would know it again when she heard a voice that paralyzed her.

_Buir._

She wasn’t alone. The voice was so clear and human that it sounded as if someone was standing right next to her. Rey stood up in a frenzy and shouted unconvincingly at the trees, “Leave me alone!”

_Buir._

It wasn’t Kylo Ren. No, it couldn’t be. This voice was much kinder, much more loving. In fact...she _knew_ that voice.

_Buir._

“Who are you?” she demanded it. 

_Buir_. 

This time, the voice sounded from farther off, as if it were running away. She wanted it to come back.

“Wait!” Rey was running now, away from the safety that was her fire and into the vastness of the forest, following the one word that echoed over and over from the unknown.

_Buir._

Why was she sprinting like so? Why was such a simple word causing her this frenzy? It could have been just another ploy into Ren’s growing lure, or even her own anxiety making her hear things, but she couldn’t stop—not now. She was growing closer. Rey could feel the voice breath down her neck and whisper in her ears. 

Ahead of her path, Rey could see a clearing in front of the trees from which the voice was coming from. She did not pay much attention to it, but there was also a faint whiff of gasoline in the air.

“It’s here!” she cried to herself, pushing her way past those trees and now into the edge of the clearing, almost smiling. 

And, immediately halting.

About seventeen yards away from her, on the other side, stood Kylo Ren, almost as shocked to find her as well, but not quite. 

Rey knew it. It was him. And she had fallen for his ploy. How stupid of her! She instinctively turned back to hide away into the forest, to the other side of the planet even until she stopped herself again. It wasn’t just him.

A painfully familiar ache how pulsed in her head. 

Rey’s heart nearly stopped. She suddenly lost her breath as if someone had punched her in the gut and knocked it out her and her stomach twisted and turned as nausea took hold of her body. She did not want to, she begged herself not to, but Rey slowly turned back around, to face Kylo Ren and…

They were not alone, that was all too clear now. Rey would have even gone as far to conclude that they weren’t the whole time on this damned planet. It was always here with them. 

**. . .**

The Mandalorian that stood between Rey and Kylo was horrible by all means. 

She hated Mandalorians. She remembered seeing their kind flock on Jakku, fitting in _too_ well on that planet of outlaws and bounty hunters, maybe even more so. They never ceased to cause an uproar at the slightest shove of a passerby, or a remark made by someone somewhere, which was a pity since they were also known as exceptionally trained warriors and assassins. Rey always did her best to avoid them, but now there was no speeder for her to hop on and zoom away, no vast horizon for her to sink into.

This one stood what seemed a towering six feet tall, even taller when he calmly walked amidst them, towards the center of the clearing, calculating their every move, their strengths and shrewdest weakness. The traditional black suit of armor was as equally as terrifying: lightened which patches of gray on the shoulder pads and chest plates while the edges of the sleeves were lined with red markings and a large jagged red X spread across the t-shaped visor of its helmet. A bulk of what seemed to be a jetpack peeked from underneath a waist-length tattered black cape. 

But there was something else, Rey knew, which set this one apart from the regular band of mercenaries that were their kind. There was an air about him, an unstoppable sense of mystery yet familiarity that followed him like a cloud when he walked. 

Rey’s eyes darted to Ren. Yes, he knew it too. Behind his own mask, she sensed a stifled fear. He stood as uncomfortably as she did all the while the new addition stood their center, sizing them up as he gripped a very evident rifle in its hands. 

The warrior’s helmet was faced towards the ground, yet they both knew that an attempt at escape now could mean certain death. And so they were frozen in place, like small prey caught in the line of sight of a ravenous predator. 

The predator suddenly turned towards Rey, staring dead straight at her as he stood still and silent. As if she wasn’t overwhelmed with enough fear, she felt his gaze penetrate her skin, sizing her up as if she were a force to be reckoned with. Rey could do nothing more but stare back into the lifeless helmet and the unnerving blood X tainted on it, wondering if there was really any human behind it. 

Then, without warning...it tilted. It was the slightest tilt, so fleeting that anyone else would have missed it. But Rey didn’t. It caught her off guard. For that split second, the Mandalorian almost seemed curious, even childlike. 

_Who are you?_ Rey questioned in her mind.

An abrupt shuffling sound broke both of their concentration. The newcomer turned dangerously sharp towards Kylo Ren, pointing his rifle at his heart. Both were done playing games. 

Ren started to approach the warrior, no longer sheepish. A blast shot from the Mandalorian’s rifle towards Ren, but unsuccessful in its pursuit. Just as quick, Ren jerked his arm towards the bolt, seizing it in midair. It pulsed and danced between them until he pulled it out of his direction and released it. It shot past him, striking down a nearby tree. Sparks flew off the bark and hit the ground, causing a fire to erupt at its base which grew rapidly, blazing a path as it did so, encircling the entire clearing and the threesome. 

Kylo Ren looked at Rey who only saw the fire soon to roast them and the threat ready to annihilate them. The trap was set, and they had fallen right into it. 

As if realizing the rifle would not be of use to him with opponents such as Ren, the Mandalorian casually holstered the weapon onto its back and unhinged another one from its waist. Amidst all the havoc and every inch of her sanity telling her to run, Rey adjusted her eyes to make out what it was. 

Three distinctive red flames crackled in front of the Mandalorian, adding a nefarious red glow onto the surface of his smooth armor.

_No. No, no, no, no… it can’t be!_

Eyes still on the new weapon, Rey’s left hand felt frantically inside her satchel for... She pulled out Kylo Ren’s lightsaber and inspected it, taking in all the fine details, then did the same to the one the warrior now held. It was no mistake—they were one in the same. 

Rey felt sick, her mind collapsing onto itself as it tried to take in all that was happening so quickly. This was _wrong_ , terribly wrong. 

Ren, now backing away from the oncoming threat and the fire ready to consume them, tried even more so to wrap his mind around this. That was _his_ saber. 

He turned to Rey, “Give it to me!”

But she didn’t listen as she brought her legs to run. She did so faster than she had ever before. 

The fire enveloped the forestry behind Ren and it followed the Mandalorian drawing nearer to him, like an obedient disciple. 

“Hut’uun!” he yelled at Ren in a foreign tongue as he drew nearer, sounding nothing like a compliment.

The voice unnerved Ren like a sock to the eye as it slurred out of its helmet, but he did his best to pay no heed to the word’s possible meaning. A tree of considerable size stood to his right. 

Kylo Ren held out his hand and, utilizing his fury to fuel his power, heaved it from the ground and threw it in the pursuer’s direction. As if he had anticipated the move, the warrior used his saber...Ren’s saber… with defined accuracy to cut the massive trunk in half as if he had thrown a mere twig at him, and continued walking without haste. 

This game of tree tossing and sword slicing continued with same results as the two made their way closer towards a very steep slope.

**. . .**

She was surely done for now. Rey stood behind the edge of a bare and very steep landslide which sloped for what seemed like a quarter mile. A single misstep down the hill would send one toppling down to their extremely painful and lengthy death. From where she stood, Rey could see the raging sea below envelop and re-envelop the shore line which seemed slim in comparison to its hungry counterpart. But even if she did not desire to risk her life just then, she had no choice. The hum of a lightsaber crept closer from behind while she lingered. 

Rey turned her back to the edge and knelt down to grip it as her legs made their descent onto the slope’s earthy surface. This wouldn’t be nearly as bad as the Destroyers she rummaged through back in a simpler time. 

When her feet found proper nooks and an occasional jutting stone, they started to step ever so carefully along the slope until no more than the top of head poked along the flat ground leading to the incline. 

Before submerging herself fully however, she dared peer back to see her fears now approaching. It was as if she were watching a holo of a “fight to the death” showdown. It may as well had been. 

The Mandalorian, swerving that dreaded sword unforgivingly in all directions towards the unarmed Ren, pinned him here. Ren did his best to duck and dodge, Rey noticed, using the Force at times to try to freeze his opponent, but to no avail. It was truly as if this being was immune to his every effort, his every pushback. 

It was strange, though, to see the once fearsome and ruthless Kylo Ren being pushed around like so. It was odd to see him lose his footing and fall to the ground, weak and helpless. And it was terrifying to see the stranger tower over him, his victim ready for the kill.

 _Good_ , she thought to herself as nonchalantly as possible, finally ducking below the edge, _He should be taken out. Serves him right for what he did to Han._

Rey looked back at his helpless form trying to support itself from the ground.

_At least he’ll be out of my way._

The Mandalorian lifted the blade steadily, high above its head for the final strike.

 **. . .**

“I know who you are.”

These words tumbled humbly out of Kylo Ren’s mouth as he laid to await doom through his device. Yes, he understood. He probably did ever since he arrived.

If the Mandalorian heard those words, it did not act as so. With weapon ready to strike, it lifted the blade higher and…

turned to face Rey. 

She stood at the edge. A familiar weapon secured in her hands and ignited. The warmth the the metal in her hands felt natural now as she focused on her new enemy.

The warrior gave her his full attention, his saber slowly rising down and away from Ren. Kylo thought he heard the warrior whisper a word that sounded like “Buir”, but paid no heed to that notion as he ,too, stared equally in awe at her. 

Enough of this. The warrior turned back at his victim, stepped onto his chest and shoved its saber down into the earth next to one of his sides, searing a nasty wound into his ribs. Ren screamed in agony as the terrorizer held the blade there for Rey’s eyes to feast upon in horror. 

“Tegaanalis kaysh,” it beckoned her. 

She understood. Rey ran towards the Mandalorian, saber raised. He finally lifted the blade from the ground and poised it at Rey, leaving Ren to his suffering. Their identical sabers clashed, and again and again. 

They were a fury together. As the blades pounded against each other and sizzled, their eye contact never broke. They chased each other like wild dogs, maddened and persistent with their powers. Each blow one delivered, the other dodged and met with a swerve to the head, or a slash to the knee. The Mandalorian proved himself highly skilled with the saber, always counter-attacking her pushbacks with an elegant swing. 

Rey ran farther towards the slope for space even though she knew she would soon regret that decision. But if she could only drive the attacker to the edge, then maybe she could gain an upperhand and send him away, forever gone from their lives. Only now, it was her back facing the impending doom. 

Once their blades clashed again, she locked onto his. They were facing each other now, pushing onto one another with all of their strength. Still connected with her opponent, Rey carefully stepped little by little towards the edge of the slope behind her, feeling the ground underneath her feet for the gradient. Once they found it, she peered past the visor of the black mask looming closer to her face at the unconscious Ren still limited to the ground, his right hand laid on the side of his torso where a belt had once been now exposing the burnt skin underneath, and to the fire inching closer to him. 

_He’s going to kill us now,_ she feared the worst, despite her plan.

But to her surprise, the warrior did something not of his nature. Rey did not find herself shoved down the declivity to her bitter end. Instead, she found a helmet pressed against her forehead as blades burned together underneath their necks. She liked to think that she may have seen the man’s eyes behind the blank lense, and that they were sharing a moment with her’s. 

A beautiful warmth swarmed over her body, something so serene that she would have almost believed herself to be on the lakeside of Takodana, with Han and Chewie, and the sun smiling lovingly down upon her. As crazy as it sounded, she used the Force to send this back to him, to try and find out… This Mandalorian…

He was silent for a moment. Perhaps her relay had worked.

“Vaabis gar ni buyacis shal an?” the human behind the helmet finally responded, soft-spoken and desperate.

Rey was speechless. She didn’t know a single word of Mando’a, but she felt as if she knew the full extent of his question. She could feel the push of his saber soften, as if almost he was holding off. He started to step away from Rey and give her room to stand. Perhaps he was...maybe she did…

No, too late. The Mandalorian ceased his brief benevolence and returned to his original malice, charging at Rey with full intent on sending her downhill. She dodged to his left just in time and traded places with him. Now she was in front of the adjacent burning woodlands from which they came and he stood on the brink. The earth crumbled underneath his weight and his feet wobbled. 

Within a span of a second, he was suddenly held in the air, his jetpack ignited and ready to support his fatal cause. The angel of death shadowed over her. It pulled out its rifle again in its free hand and pointed it at Rey’s head. She held Ren’s saber firmly in front of her and prepared to block.

He shot the rifle. The bolt escaped its shelter and made its way, a straight line to Rey. 

Then it stopped. 

The two both stared, bewildered at the phenomenon. The bolt jerked threateningly between them in a forced still life until it made its mind. So fleetingly, the bolt was gone. The Mandalorian’s chest exploded and he was immediately rejected from the sky, throwing him down, down below…

As the dark clouds spread over the land, they sobbed uncontrollably. Rey, still processing what had occurred, stared at Ren’s saber fixed in her hands, the three blades sizzling and steaming upon each contact with the teardrops. A large hole had formed in her heart. 

She turned around. Kylo Ren met her gaze, his one hand outstretched in her direction, then lowering as he tried to prop his body up with the other. The fire behind that once chased them here was gradually sizing down as the rain reduced it to mere mist. Rey disabled his saber and half-mindedly slid it back into her satchel as she raced to his side.

“You’re going to hurt yourself. Hey, stop that!” 

She wrapped one of his arms around her neck and held it as she supported him along her side, using her other arm to hold onto his waist, now accompanied by a fresh wound. He hissed when she did so.

“Oh shut up! You’re lucky I even—”

“Rey! Rey...take me down there.” he begged.

“What? You’re crazy! One slip and you’ll have us both killed.”

“He’s down there.”

She grew silent and looked back towards the slope the Mandalorian had fallen past. He was definitely done for. Yet, she knew why Ren wanted to see him...she knew. And, she admitted, she wanted to as well.

“Look, the fire is dying out. We’ll find another path through here,” she motioned towards the charcoal black forest behind them, burnt raw, but passable. 

Together, now one mass grasping onto each other, they made their way towards the dying fire on the scorched ground.

**. . .**

The body laid there, on the shoreline, still as the stones scattered in the damp sand. The inflowing waves hugged it continuously, each time causing it to edge closer towards the ocean. A thin stream of smoke snaked out from under its back and into the dark clouds above who were still weeping their woes. 

Was he alive? 

Rey told herself that she wished he wasn’t.

“Lay me next to him,” a whisper asked of Rey.

Rey laid Ren next to the still one and watched as he sat and looked over him, while perplexed over whether she should do the same. There was something about him that she had never seen before. It was almost as if he weren’t even Kylo Ren. It was...it was _compassion_. 

Unafraid now, she knelt on the other side of the body. It was time for them to know. Taking action, she gingerly placed her hands on its helmet and pulled very slowly. 

The boy was not a Mandalorian.

He appeared to be no older than seventeen, or eighteen at the most, with a handsome round face and pale skin that contrasted with his pink-blue bruises from the fall and scruffy black hair, now dampened on his head. Rey instinctively found her hand on his cheek, caressing it while petting away the wet hair in his face. 

She looked up at Ren, “Do you know him?”

He shook his head vaguely.

She then peered back down at the boy, and noticed something poking out from one of the platings on his chest. Rey pulled it out—it was a holochip. She looked back at Ren and they wordlessly agreed that if they were ever to find out the identity of the rogue, this was the clue they needed. There was a holoprojector built into the boy’s wrist plate. She slid the chip in and turned the device on. 

The blue figure of the boy appeared, donning the armor he wore now and unmasked, his helmet held by his side. He looked up at them, as if he really knew they were there, as if he were speaking to them in person:

“Rey? Ben Solo?

If you’re watching this, then I’m dead. 

That means that I owe you an explanation of some sort.”

He paused here, as if considering his next words.

“You probably won’t believe me. You’ll say it’s 

impossible. That’s okay. You don’t have to believe,”

Another brief pause followed. 

“Mom, Dad...well, you’ve probably guessed it: I’m your son.

In the future, many years from your time, there will come a darkness like no other. I...I had to go back to kill you. Both of you and Niima—my sister,...were consumed by it. I had to! But it must be obvious now that I’ve failed. ”

Rey’s eyes watered and burned, she felt her hand cover her mouth as if she were about to scream. She dared not make eye contact with Ren.

“Listen. I know what happened to your ships. You can use mine. From where I encountered you last, it should be two miles south from there.

Father, if you are seeing this ,too, like I believe you are, please take care of mom. I never had you with me growing up, but she always told me you were a good man inside. 

Buir, I love you with all my heart. And I believe that we will meet each other again...very soon.”

The boy’s figure flickered away, and the world seemed to grow dead silent. Not even the cold pounding rain persuaded a word out of her. She grabbed the boy’s limp wrist, searching desperately for any pulse. 

“He’s dead.”

She started to cry. 

**. . .**

A new and bright day had dawned, counteracting the night before. The sunshine’s rays hit the earth, two beings, and a shuttle. 

Everything was set. The ship was fully functional and ready to takeoff at a moment’s notice. All it was missing was its passengers. 

Kylo Ren ,unmasked, stood on the extendable bridge leading to the mouth of the ship. The fresh wound that once roasted his torso was now bandaged and bearable. Rey stood at the edge, staring at the ground.

“You...you should have that treated immediately. I could only do so much with what I had.”

“I will.”

A pause lingered. 

“Oh, I almost forgot!” Rey reached into her bag, then handed Ren what was his, making minimum eye contact.

He awkwardly fiddled with it for a moment, then buckled back onto his belt.

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” she told the ground. 

“Rey.”

Her eyes locked onto his, finally.

Kylo Ren was serious. He hoped she would listen this time, that she would not run off, “You can come with me. I can hide you away from all of this. You’d be happy—I’d make sure of that.”

It was a startling offer, one Rey had never dared considered until now—being with him. But if that message was true, if Thomas was really who he said he was…

She thought of the other lightsaber hidden in the far reaches of her bag, of Luke Skywalker, and Jedi Temples. Her mission…

Rey tried to assert herself with confidence, yet her voice still broke, “I—”

She felt something softly take her hand. Looking down, she found out it was his hand. He held it gently and slid something inside of her palm: the holochip, her son.

Overwhelmed and dazed, Rey met him again. Her mouth opened to say something, to refuse, to accept, but closed. All she could do was search for herself in his eyes, and she did, along with two others, and a whole new world. 

She peered back at the chip, and then at him again, “We shall see each other again…” 

Another ship landed somewhere.

“Very soon.”

“Very soon,” she repeated.


End file.
